Welcome to Markets Desk, your closing bell rundown for Thursday.
Equities staged a broad and convincing rally today, with tech leading the charge. Microsoft headlined a surge that pushed the Nasdaq one hundred up more than three percent, while the S and P five hundred gained one point six six percent and the Dow added over one percent. Earnings strength and renewed confidence in large-cap technology drove the move.
Fueling that optimism further, Amazon's stake in Anthropic is generating a substantial windfall, with the company disclosing that most of its non-operating pre-tax income tied to other holdings stems from that AI investment. Amazon has committed thirteen billion dollars to Anthropic, and the market is taking notice of just how well that bet is maturing as artificial intelligence valuations continue to climb.
Shifting to commodities, natural gas prices moved higher after the Energy Information Administration reported a storage build of twenty-eight billion cubic feet for the week ending July twenty-fourth. That came in well below the consensus expectation of thirty-seven billion cubic feet, signaling tighter supply than anticipated, and forecasts for warmer temperatures added further upward pressure to the move.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
